


Adieu to All Sorrow and Care

by ArtemisRae



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, also oops i made real people demigods again, dont get all hot and bothered by the rating, its mostly just them being ridiculous and in love, theres only like a smidge of smut, vacation fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-17
Updated: 2017-09-17
Packaged: 2018-12-31 00:28:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12120612
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArtemisRae/pseuds/ArtemisRae
Summary: Percy and Annabeth spend fall break road tripping to Fallingwater.... which goes about as well as could be expected.





	Adieu to All Sorrow and Care

**Author's Note:**

> If you'll indulge my authors note here, I'd just like to state for the record: the first ever fic I ever conceived for PJO way back in 2009 was Percy and Annabeth roadtripping to Fallingwater. While this fic doesn't really resemble the one I came up with years ago, I had the opportunity to travel to Fallingwater myself recently and couldn't resist the urge to write about the experience properly.
> 
> The cabin and man described within are real, although they are located further south in West Virginia and not in Fayette County, where Fallingwater is and where Percy and Annabeth are staying in this fic. Incidentally, if you ever get the chance to travel there, it really is lovely.

It was chilly the morning they left New York, piling into the now aged Prius and driving out of Manhattan. The fall weather had started early that year, and Annabeth was curled up in the passenger seat of the car, wearing one of his t-shirts - a green one bearing the Loch Ness Monster, with the caption _believe in yourself_. In return, he was wearing one of hers - a floppy shirt he’d bought for her to sleep in, stating in big blocky letters _ARCHITECTS DO IT WITH MODELS_. (What had started off as a gag gift had slowly worked its way into his own wardrobe, mostly because he enjoyed the confusion on people’s faces when they asked if he was an architect and he easily replied, “No but my girlfriend is.”)

The traffic getting out of New York was predictably awful, but once they edged their way onto the interstate it opened up, and he and Annabeth held hands as they watched the hills of Pennsylvania rise and fall around them in a blur of orange and red.

It had been a long summer. They had returned to New York, intending to spend time with his family and visit camp, but what had actually happened was that Annabeth had gotten sucked into the vortex that was the Mt. Olympus rehab (and been swayed when Hermes had pointed out that it looked great on her resume as a high profile internship) while Percy seemed to have activated some beacon that had attracted no less than five separate young demigods to him. Young demigods that he had all shepherded off to camp, beating back monsters the entire way.

Two of them had been daughters of Aphrodite, which had made him suspicious of some kind of godly conspiracy, but to his eternal gratitude he wasn’t drawn into any kind of quests, though he had been volunteered to teach sword fighting while Clarisse was laid up with a broken leg for a couple weeks.

They spent both of their birthdays (and their anniversary) mixed up in their separate projects, ruined a number of plans that they had set for the summer (Annabeth had barely gotten to spend any time with his family, and Percy had missed Rachel’s extravagant birthday party in order to get a terrified son of Hermes to camp), and wasted tons of drachmas IMing each other to keep in touch.

When Annabeth had disentangled herself from Olympus to go back to school, Percy had not been pleased to see that, as always when she spent too much time up there, she had lost weight and her sleep cycle was completely backwards. It was disconcerting to see end-of-semester Annabeth when the school year was just starting, and Percy had been determined to do something to make it up to her.

And himself. He deserved this too.

Of course once the semester had started it was easy to get swept back into the routine of _studyteststudyessaystudy_ but he hadn’t forgotten the very real sense of loss he’d felt when they’d left New York, and with a little help from his mother had made plans to fly back for their fall break.

He’d had vague notions of keeping the entire thing a surprise for Annabeth, but that had been pretty much impossible since his girlfriend somehow knew everything. She’d already been suspicious when he’d told her to pack a bathing suit, but then his sister had ruined it by asking if Annabeth would bring her something back from Fallingwater. Sally had scolded her, Paul had roared with laughter, but Annabeth had grinned and kissed him sweetly, and that had been when he knew it really was a good idea.

The flight out had been surprisingly smooth, and his family always happy to see them even if it was just for a night. They were on the road now, enjoying each other’s company in a way that was only possible after years of knowing each other, the dull roar of the highway lulling them into forgetting the mountain of homework that was waiting for both of them. Annabeth dozed, while Percy listened to the radio, sipping his boring mortal coffee and wishing for one of Hermes energy drinks ( _actually_ gives you wings!).

They were about an hour outside of Fayette County when he pulled off the turnpike into a rest stop, surrounded by a sea of trucks and minivans. He shook Annabeth awake, and with a grumble she got out of the car and stretched, wandering into the building for fresh coffee while he pumped gas.

While he was digging through the trunk for their jackets he felt a prickle at the base of his neck, the hairs standing up. He straightened up, looking around, though there wasn’t much to see except a bunch of bored truck drivers.

It was overcast and not quite raining yet, though he’d been flipping the wipers on and off for the last hour. The grey clouds seemed to descend towards the earth, the tops of the mountains wreathed in fog. It was quiet, beautiful, and haunting; easy to feel like he had stumbled into another time and place, with the only noise being the cars on the road and nothing but trees disappearing into the fog as far as the eye could see. Hard not to wonder what could be hiding out there even if you weren’t the paranoid sort, which he definitely was.

He turned towards the woods that started off of the embankment, eyes scanning.

Nothing.

Abruptly, Annabeth’s hand appeared in front of his face. She was holding a pair of green cups and still seemed drowsy from the drive. Whatever was bothering him hadn’t alarmed her. “Good news, Seaweed Brain, they had pumpkin spice.”

“You remembered my favorite.” He grinned at her, and turned his back on the forest. Whatever was out there would either catch up with them or it wouldn’t.

***

Annabeth perked up as they pulled into the driveway leading up to Fallingwater. They stopped at the gate, where a little old lady in a booth gave them a warm smile and asked if they had a reservation.

“Yes, under Jackson?” She meticulously notated a receipt with their group number as Annabeth squeezed his hand. Even with the bags still under her eyes, she already looked better than she had when they’d flown in from California the night before.

As he reached for the slip of paper, the attendant’s eyes locked on his arm. “What an interesting tattoo!”

Percy froze, eyes flicking to look at the SPQR tattoo and back up again. The Mist, he had learned, did not always show it accurately. He didn’t think that was the case here though. Frank Lloyd Wright had been a demigod, and places associated with their type tended to have a certain energy around them that attracted other demigods, monsters, and mythological curiosities. He suspected that she was a mortal who could see through the Mist, though he’d never be sure, because he smiled, thanked the lady, and continued on down the gravel driveway to the parking lot.

As soon as they got out of the car they could hear running water. There were other tourists around them, all heading down the path in the same direction, towards the wide wooden pavilion that housed the check in desk. The ambient noise was inherently relaxing, but it was twenty degrees cooler near the water and within the shade of the trees and pavilion. Annabeth cuddled into his side, unzipping his jacket and worming her way within as they waited for their group number to be called. He wrapped his arms around her, resting his chin on the top of her head. Despite being cooped up in the car all morning, she smelled of fresh shampoo and cinnamon coffee.

The tour itself seemed to go by in the blink of an eye. Annabeth had told him before that Wright had been a son of Demeter, but Percy thought he could have figured that out himself; the tour guide told them about Wright and his career as an architect, about his philosophy of organic architecture and how he built structures that integrated with the landscape instead of standing out from them.

He told them about the boulders from the creek bed being used as part of the foundation, of the hatch that led from the living room directly down to the creek bed so the family could wade, of the spring fed pool by the guest house, and Percy, who only knew what he did of architecture thanks to Annabeth, could appreciate the clean, vertical lines of the house and the effortless way it was nestled into the hillside.

He’d never heard the word cantilever before, and was reasonably sure for the rest of his life he’d never hear it again as many times as he’d heard it on that tour.

Annabeth, with her eyes big and shiny, looked like a living cartoon character as they were led through the house. Percy could practically see a trail of hearts following her from room to room.

While the family that owned the house, the Kaufmans, hadn’t belonged to any pantheon, the house had marks of demigods all over. There was original artwork from Diego Rivera and Picasso, and as they walked through the study Annabeth pointed out books of poetry from a son of Apollo. Even the rugs, now recreations they learned, demonstrated a level of skill that only a child of Athena could achieve.

For something that he’d done mostly for Annabeth, Percy ended up enjoying the tour. Once it was over they walked down the path to the scenic overlook of the house, where they took the requisite selfie to send to their parents once they had service again. It came out beautifully, and Percy immediately set it as the lock screen on his phone; the house, with the waterfalls underneath, and the two of them surrounded by trees of red and gold, smiling brightly - they looked like a postcard. 

They stopped for lunch - after stopping in the gift shop, where Annabeth bought an insanely expensive stained glass birdhouse for his sister to hang outside her window - and it was at the restaurant that they first saw him.

It was a small place that shared half of its space with a convenience store, the menu handwritten on giant chalkboards mounted on the cabinetry and hand-laminated menus in Comic Sans. They seated themselves at the counter and got sandwiches, and while looking around Percy abruptly got that feeling again, like his arms had broken into gooseflesh. He sat up and looked around, but saw nothing out of the ordinary.

Annabeth didn’t seem to notice; she was playing with her phone, trying to connect to wi-fi so she could get directions to their cabin.

There were only two other tables in the restaurant with people sitting at them; one was a small family that had been in the same tour group with them at Fallingwater. The other was a single gentleman, wearing a dirty sweatshirt. He had a bandana tied around his head in Confederate flag print. He was eating a burger, and seemed totally uninterested in them.

The creepy feeling faded not long after that, and they enjoyed their lunch and continued on up to the cabin that Percy had found; it was up in the mountains, along the Laurel Highlands Scenic Byway, and the view of the mountains in the full glory of fall was stunning.

“Wow Percy.” Annabeth got out of the car, leaving the doors open as she walked to the edge of the property, leaning on a fence that blocked a steep drop off that led to a river. “This is gorgeous.”

She wasn’t wrong. He’d never been one for going out into the woods for a vacation - too much time spent at camp, and on quests, to find it appealing. But this was on a whole different level; this was a luxury that he was quite unaccustomed to. The cabin had a huge wrap around porch that jutted out over the hillside, a fire pit, and - most importantly -

He hefted the lid of the hot tub back and was greeted with a blast of warm air. “See why I told you to pack your bathing suit?”

The smile that unfurled across her face was almost predatory. “You get the wine.”

***

“What is _that_?!” he blurted the question before he could stop himself, so completely surprised was he by the sight before him.

He’d seen Annabeth in a bathing suit innumerable times; she usually stuck to a plain black one piece, though the week before they’d gone back to school they’d spent a day in Montauk and she’d laid out in a pink two piece that was a particular favorite of his. He never cared about what she wore, and while he thought she was gorgeous he knew there were things she was self conscious about - too many scars from too many quests, bruises from sparring, thick thighs and a flat rear end.

The last thing he’d expected was for her to step out into the chilly evening drizzle wearing a sky blue bikini. She had a towel over one arm, but wasn’t covering herself with it; by the way her shoulders were squared he could tell it was a conscious choice not to do so.

A blush was blooming across her face. “I got it in the end of summer sales… thought I could hide it until next summer but then you planned this so…”

There were so many things he wanted to say to her - _you look amazing, I love you, I want to do so many things to you right now_ \- but what he actually did was unstick his tongue from the roof of his mouth and ask, “Do those bottoms tie?”

“You’ll have to find out for yourself,” she shot back, the invitation unmistakable, and it took every ounce of self control in Percy’s psyche not to throw her over his shoulder like a caveman and carry her off to the bedroom.

She stepped into the hot tub, much more confident now; he handed her a glass of wine and she sank into the water, head tilting back to rest on the lip of the tub. “This feels amazing.”

He gulped the wine, eyes tracing the the skin below her collarbone, where her cleavage started. He’d been mesmerized by the bottoms, and was just now realizing that the top was a halter that _also_ tied.

“This was a great idea,” she continued, eyes half-lidded like a content cat. “I know we could have gotten so much more work done if we’d stayed at school for fall break, but we really needed this.”

“All we’ve done lately is work,” Percy complained, not trying to disguise the whine in his voice. He hadn’t whined at all that summer, knowing it was work that needed to be done, but now felt a bit entitled since they were acknowledging it. She quirked an eyebrow in agreement, holding up her glass in a sign of cheers. When she put her glass down she licked her lips and that was the end of the Percy’s resolve.

It was a tiny hot tub that technically seated four, though the two of them were knocking knees sitting across from one another. Even that felt like too far away. He put aside the glass and reached for her. “C’mere.”

He tucked her against his side, pushing her hair aside to kiss her neck down her shoulder. One of her hands reached back, brushing his face, while the other clutched the one of his that was drifting over her abdomen, fingertips teasing the edge of her top.

She turned in his arms, right as he was sucking a mark into her neck, and pushed him hard against the edge of the tub, her mouth covering him in a hard and bruising kiss. Her knees were locked against his thighs, his hands on her ass holding her against him, preventing her from floating away from him.

There was a jet directly in the small of his back, and when he wriggled away from the stimulation their hips met and Annabeth moaned right into his mouth. His fingers flexed, holding her tight, and while she bucked against him he brushed aside the thin fabric covering her breasts and mouthed at her cleavage, taking one nipple into his mouth. Her nails bit into his neck as she gasped, head falling back so far her hair dipped into the water. It clung half-wet to her shoulders, dripping water over her clavicle to where his mouth was working.

He lifted her up, spilling water out of the tub as he lurched forward with her in his arms - “Up, up,” he commanded, perching her on the edge, kneeling on the seat. She was hunched over, kissing him thoroughly, hands holding him by the ears so he couldn’t move away. Her nipples stood out in the cold air; they brushed against him, and he reached up, cupped her breasts in his large hands, rubbed his thumbs over them.

Breaking away, he instinctively took a deep breath, taking in the smell of her, of them together. His hands pushed her thighs wide, and the breathy laugh that Annabeth let out as he slid his hands up and up to the bottom of her bathing suit almost did him in completely.

“It’s cold,” her tone was complaining, but her eyes were dark, pupils blown.

He pressed a kiss next to her navel. “Don’t you trust me to keep you warm?”

She might have answered; he wasn’t listening as he undid the ties to her bathing suit, and once she was revealed to him he hooked his hands around her calves and pulled her towards him. Annabeth shrieked - off balance, she had almost toppled over the edge of the tub - and he murmured an apology that she probably didn’t even hear before he pressed his mouth to her and started working.

ADHD was truly an amazing thing; besides saving his life multiple times, it also meant that while he sank a finger inside her, flattened his tongue just the way she liked, he also noticed the way the hot tub filter hummed, the jet against his thigh, the heel of her foot kicking against his side and the way his scalp ached as she clenched her fingers into his hair and pulled him -

_Pulled_?!

“ _Percy_!” She was saying his name in alarm, not pleasure. “I think something's out there.” He lifted his head and saw the way that her eyes, previously hazy with pleasure, were now sharp and scanning the woods around them. He stood up, sloshing more water out of the hot tub, and lunged for his towel where he’d left Riptide.

“Did you see anything?” he asked, toying with the cap, not actually opening the sword yet. “I thought I sensed something at the restaurant earlier.”

“No, I thought I heard something…” she shivered and readjusted the top of her bathing suit. Even though she hadn’t seen anything, and he didn’t notice anything now, they’d lived too long not to listen to their instincts.

“Come on, let’s go in.” He climbed out of the hot tub, and offered Annabeth a hand. “We’re here for a romantic weekend, and if something wants to fight it’s going to have to climb down the chimney.”

“Ooh, let’s build a fire!” Annabeth exclaimed, wrapping a towel around her waist.

Inside, the mood was recaptured. They finished the bottle of wine, started another, built a fire, and had sex on the sofa, with Annabeth pressing him into the cushions and the fire hot at her back. Instead of getting dressed they pulled the comforter off the bed and wrapped up together naked, talking quietly about their families, their friends, future plans, and how much they loved each other. They didn’t talk about work, or school, or any of the other unpleasant obligations that had kept them apart too often lately.

***

The mood lasted until morning, when he woke up sated and content to Annabeth wearing nothing but a pair of panties and his t-shirt from the day before. She was holding a knife, and the look on her face was concerning.

“Percy,” she said, shaking his foot. “Wake up, there’s a man outside.”

He was up in a flash, pulling on a pair of shorts and reaching for Riptide. She had already left the room and he followed her out to the deck, overlooking the driveway where a silver SUV had pulled in behind the Prius.

The driver got out, and Percy recognized him immediately as the man he’d seen in the restaurant the day before. Today he was wearing a pair of denim overalls, sans shirt, but he had the same Confederate flag bandana tied around his head. Alarms were blaring in his head, and he pressed his thumb against Riptide’s cap, ready to fight.

“Um… are you the owner?” He hoped against hope; the owner had sent them a code to get into the cabin and left them a contact number but otherwise hadn’t bothered them. Even if it was the owner, it still didn’t resolve the feeling in his chest that they were being watched, that he needed to be ready, to prepare to defend.

“I was looking for the owner,” the man said. “I figured if he were home he’d come out. Is he here?”

“No,” Annabeth said, and Percy could tell that she was trying to think of a way to avoid telling this man that they were here alone.

“Do you know the owner?” he pressed them, and Annabeth stiffened, biting her lips, trying to feel out the situation.

“I can contact him,” Percy offered, looking for some crack in his disguise, trying to figure out which monster they were facing.

“He’s not here?” the man asked again, but before they could reply everything promptly went to hell.

There was a terrible roaring scream from the woods, and then a blur streaked through the trees towards the cabin. Annabeth cursed and leapt over the railing of the deck, landing on her bare feet on the gravel driveway just in time to throw her sword up and prevent the scorpion tail of a manticore from taking the man’s head off.

The next few minutes were chaos; the man fell over, screaming, and Percy rushed to help, bellowing a battle cry that was mostly gibberish.

“Move!” Percy snarled at the man, who was trying to scoot backwards on his rear end away from them. He seemed to have forgotten about his legs, or maybe he knew they wouldn’t support him, but either way Percy wanted him clear from the battle.

Annabeth was leading the manticore away, back towards the woods, trying to minimize any damage to the cabin. He raced to join them - and just barely managed to dodge the scorpion tail himself.

“Teeth! Watch the teeth!” Annabeth called, just as its head swung around to bite at him. A manticore’s bite was strong enough to crush his wrist, he knew, and he got lucky, swiping his sword hard to the right and managing to slice his throat open.

Vile green blood poured from the wound, and the beast let out a gurgling scream - just as Annabeth managed to damage his tail. It flailed wildly, and they both dove to avoid it. He grunted as he hit the ground, felt something pierce his shoulder. They needed to end this quickly; he didn’t have a shirt, Annabeth didn’t have pants, and neither one of them had put shoes on.

Annabeth appeared to be reading his mind. “I’ll distract the tail,” she muttered to him, resetting her stance. “You stab from underneath, try to hit something vital.”

“Don’t get poisoned,” he replied, eyeing the long black claws of the manticore’s paws. “It’ll really ruin our weekend.”

She flashed him a quick smile and with a deep breath dove back in. Just like the night before with Annabeth, his ADHD went wild, informing him of every rock that was pressing into the soft flesh of his foot, noting the look of rage on the manticore’s face, the way the plants that were hit with its blood were shrivelling, and instinctively guiding him towards the soft spots of its underbelly.

Time seemed to slow down during these fights, but in truth it was only a couple minutes before he sunk Riptide in to the hilt, flinging the manticore across the clearing into a tree. It’s flank heaved once, twice and then the dust rose from its body as it dissolved.

Annabeth was poking at his shoulder. “Did he get you?”

He looked at the blood that was dribbling lazily down his arm. “Nah, I think I hit a rock or a stick when I fell. You okay?”

She nodded, cleaning her sword with the hem of her shirt.

“Don’t,” he scolded. “I like that shirt.”

They picked their way around the rocks back to the cabin, where they were surprised to see the silver SUV still parked in the driveway behind the Prius. The man was huddled behind the open driver’s side door, clearly terrified out of his mind.

“Don’t hurt me!” he shouted, trying to pull himself up into the car. The keys were still on the ground. “For the love of god, I got a family!”

“I’m not going to hurt you,” Annabeth told him flatly, bending over and handing him the keys. His hands were shaking so badly that he immediately dropped them again. “What were you doing here though?”

“I do landscaping! Tom hasn’t paid his last invoice!” He stammered, trying to shove the key into the ignition. “I won’t bother him again, I promise!”

The car started, and he started backing out of the driveway before he’d even shut the door. They watched as he weaved back and forth down the driveway and pulled back onto the road, tires squealing.

They stood and watched. Annabeth took his hand, interlocked their fingers. Percy scratched the back of his head.

“Maybe the real monster was the creepy confederate guy all along,” he suggested.

“No Percy, it was definitely the manticore,” Annabeth said firmly.

“Time will prove me right,” he predicted sagely, and Annabeth snickered. “Come on, there’s champagne and orange juice and one of those giant spa showers back in the cabin. Let’s get cleaned up.”

***

The next morning they packed the car up and started the trip back to New York City. Annabeth was again in the passenger seat, this time wearing an old AHS swim team shirt. She had a textbook for her Structural Behavior class open in her lap, a highlighter tucked behind one ear.

The weekend had accomplished its goal; they were both refreshed in a way that they hadn’t been at the end of summer. Traffic was light getting out of Fayette County, and as they got onto the turnpike he and Annabeth once again held hands as they watched the Pennsylvania hills rise and fall around them in a blur of orange and red.

**Author's Note:**

> As I said before - the man in the story wearing the denim overalls (with no shirt) and confederate flag bandana really was someone we ran into when we rented a cabin in West Virginia, although in this case he was waiting for the owner and greeted us at the cabin when we arrived. We didn't get far enough into conversation to discern if he was owed money or not, but he did seem to realize that he scared the ever loving shit out of us and didn't bother us again the rest of our time there. Sorry creepy confederate flag dude. You may be nice, but you scared me and thus are immortalized in fic forever.


End file.
